Lee Moffie: Draft Day

Offensive defenseman who has the ability to rush the puck or make the pass and join the rush. He has a fluid stride and a quick burst of speed coming through the neutral zone with the puck. Seamlessly changes directions on his skates and is a poised puck mover who runs a productive powerplay. Underrated in his ability to control the pace of the game when the puck is on his stick although at times he sacrifices defensive positioning for the offensive push. Has decent size and strength with an occasional mean streak but he needs to be more intense away from the puck and play physical on a consistent basis. Needs to take the body more while defending one-on-one. Excels as the third man in the rush, making the first pass, and getting pucks on net from the point.

The scout quoted directly after that report had seen Moffie in the USHL rather than in college, but indicated that even as a seventh round pick Moffie was “a stretch” despite having “some jump to his game.”

Tim Burke, the Sharks’ director of scouting, reflected similarly mixed feelings in his comments following the selection of Moffie:

Lee Moffie is a kid we’ve been watching for three years and we’ve been back and forth on him. Then he went to Michigan this year as a freshman and he was a pretty young freshman. He had a good year in the USHL the year before and he kept improving. Our thinking was that if we didn’t take him he would be one of those higher free agents that 30 teams were going after and we had enough on him to say ‘let’s do it now,’ rather than wait and see him go back for his sophomore year and then we’re competing against 30 teams for him.

College Numbers

Moffie’s numbers in college are an interesting study. The NCAA does a better job of publicizing statistics than some other leagues do (the information is all available via the University of Michigan’s website), so we have some stuff available to us that isn’t there at other levels.

Moffie had really respectable scoring numbers for three years before dropping off sharply in year four; he was also a pretty good scorer in the USHL at 18. Interestingly, a lot of his scoring comes at even-strength – even in his 32 point college season, only eight points came on the man advantage. He blocks a decent amount of shots, but not a ton for a guy who clearly plays in all situations He’s been near the team lead in plus/minus the last few seasons, too. It’s not a lot of information, but it fits into the picture sketched by the scouting reports.

Moffie for Bigos

There have been suggestions published that the Oilers did not intend to sign Kyle Bigos, which would have made him an unrestricted free agent (likely on August 15), so from a certain perspective adding something for nothing is always good. Likely, Moffie was in a similar position in San Jose.

It seems like a pretty decent trade. Bigos brought size and edge (listed at 6’5”, 235 pounds) on defence but had limited upside in other areas; Moffie isn’t small (6’1”, 200 pounds) but has a more varied skillset. They’re both depth prospects.

Recently around the Nation Network

For a fourth-line depth signing, niche skills and versatility are two very important qualities to look for. If this signing is a low-cost one (he made $1.6M each of the past two years on a one-way contract, but I would guess he's taking a pay cut), it would be difficult not to break even. A guy who can do a few things really well and bounce around the line-up is great to have in the bottom six.

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Jonathan Willis is a freelance writer.
He currently works for Oilers Nation, Sportsnet and Bleacher Report.
He's co-written three books and worked for myriad websites, including the Edmonton Journal, Grantland, ESPN, The Score, and Hockey Prospectus. He was previously the founder and managing editor of Copper & Blue.

Bigos for who?? the Oilers waited a long time for Bigos to develop and now they just shovel him out the door! i wonder if he was along the lines of Teubert and Plante and just couldn't skate well enough for the NHL game?

Trade muscle for hustle I guess , might help more on the farm than Bigos . Speaking of muscle Willis , any chance a cheap enforcer (maybe best in league ) local boy John Scott from Buffalo could be on Oilers radar ?

TSN has Curtis Hamilton listed as being involved in the Horcoff deal, but Capgeek still has him in OKC. I haven't once heard/read his name in any of the trade particulars outside of TSN's transaction page. What gives?

TSN has Curtis Hamilton listed as being involved in the Horcoff deal, but Capgeek still has him in OKC. I haven't once heard/read his name in any of the trade particulars outside of TSN's transaction page. What gives?

Good news if they flushed Hamilton from the system. Room for another contract that may have upside.

I'm okay with Jones coming back. He had an off season last year but a lot of good players did, plus he had that freak eye injury. Jones is a good guy in the locker room and has proven that he can work his ass off and pitch in offensively. He won't break the bank and he'll have one more year to prove that he can be consistent. Jones wasn't part of the problems here. He had his role and he was the few in that role that actually pulled his weight most nights.

Wasn't the Michigan program criticized for being lax with its players learning positioning? One of the things I read about Jack Johnson was that he was drafted *despite* being from Michigan, because his qualities as an athlete outweighed the drawbacks of being from a weak program. Michigan players apparently get to run around and do what they want, with much less emphasis on system, tactics, and defensive play.

I'm okay with Jones coming back. He had an off season last year but a lot of good players did, plus he had that freak eye injury. Jones is a good guy in the locker room and has proven that he can work his ass off and pitch in offensively. He won't break the bank and he'll have one more year to prove that he can be consistent. Jones wasn't part of the problems here. He had his role and he was the few in that role that actually pulled his weight most nights.

I am a big Ryan Jones fan. My only concern is that the eye injury affected his ability to be gritty. He has to turn into a typical visor wearing pest.

when during this BOLD summer to we get better?I think Mact did well with ferrence,gorden ect but we are still way off a playoff team,unless we get a miracle trade somehow we will be on the outside looking in.I will give Mact a c+ right now and hope he turns it into a b+

Anyone hear anything about suitors for Hemsky? I'm assuming there's been some interest from western teams but MacT is probably going to send him out east. Ottawa and Philly are no longer interested I'm guessing with there most recent transactions. Washington maybe?

Has Jagr chosen Oilers as per rumours on NHL.com ? Maybe the JAGR... license plate that sped by me 2 days ago was him ? Seems like a lot of trolling going on at NHL.com with a wrath of sizeable trades being bandied around .

Philly definitely needs to shed a couple bodies and Holgren's definitely busy working the phones right now trying to maximize his return. It's going to be a tricky business all around - the other GMs know that he's stuck and won't want to offer the moon and on the other hand the possible return of quality players like the Schenns, Couturier, Coburn, etc is going to be really hard for GMs to resist.

The real question is if we have the pieces to give up for those players. I have a sinking feeling that we do not. Philly can't take salary back, so any of NHL roster players are out. That leaves prospects, but unfortunately they won't want prospects that are NHL ready or need to clear waivers so that leaves out players like Magnus or Hartikainen. So when you cut the list down like that, who's left that's expendable? Nurse, our future draft picks, Klefbom, Rajala, Gernat, Marincin, and Pitlick really and will that be good enough to get Couturier + a d-man from Philly? I'm not so sure. The only way I see this working is if there's a three way trade where Edmonton trades to X and Philly while X trades the part they'd give to Edmonton over to Philly instead and that's another head scratcher of a complex deal.

Put into perspective like that, I can't help but frown at the people who think MacT isn't getting the deal done by now. This is going to be tough to swing IMO.

Philly definitely needs to shed a couple bodies and Holgren's definitely busy working the phones right now trying to maximize his return. It's going to be a tricky business all around - the other GMs know that he's stuck and won't want to offer the moon and on the other hand the possible return of quality players like the Schenns, Couturier, Coburn, etc is going to be really hard for GMs to resist.

The real question is if we have the pieces to give up for those players. I have a sinking feeling that we do not. Philly can't take salary back, so any of NHL roster players are out. That leaves prospects, but unfortunately they won't want prospects that are NHL ready or need to clear waivers so that leaves out players like Magnus or Hartikainen. So when you cut the list down like that, who's left that's expendable? Nurse, our future draft picks, Klefbom, Rajala, Gernat, Marincin, and Pitlick really and will that be good enough to get Couturier + a d-man from Philly? I'm not so sure. The only way I see this working is if there's a three way trade where Edmonton trades to X and Philly while X trades the part they'd give to Edmonton over to Philly instead and that's another head scratcher of a complex deal.

Put into perspective like that, I can't help but frown at the people who think MacT isn't getting the deal done by now. This is going to be tough to swing IMO.

A three way trade might be the best method. It might allow us to include Hemsky in a package.

Wearing the early goat horns this season is MacT.. He produces an early competitor , or he's going to be roasted . Not exactly hitting homers by missing on his primary targets so far . Like Jonesy , but I thought he was already out the door ? Don't know how going back to status quo players they were hoping to move for upgrades is going to make us much of a better team than last year ?

Mind you , are divisional rivals are not doing much either and feel we are doing slightly better than most of them are so far , but no where near being a top contender . Phoenix has probably done the best so far in our division .

They never ruled out Jones returning as a possibility. I got the sense that the Oilers were willing to let him taste free agency and see what the market dictated and allow him to get a chance to see if he could make more but if he couldn't or was getting the same offers he'd get from the Oilers, he'd prefer to stay. By then the Oilers would know if they had gotten a couple of pieces they wanted or not.

Honestly, nobody should be disappointed that Jones is returning. He was never a problem in our bottom 6. In fact he was one of the few shining pieces in a pile of rubbish who simply had an off year in a shortened season and an injury to work around. He's back for only one year and at a price that won't break the bank. Seriously, I'd rather have Jones back with how great he is in the room and his work ethic than some random plug from another team that might not be as thrilled to play here if acquired by a trade or because we offered the most money.

They never ruled out Jones returning as a possibility. I got the sense that the Oilers were willing to let him taste free agency and see what the market dictated and allow him to get a chance to see if he could make more but if he couldn't or was getting the same offers he'd get from the Oilers, he'd prefer to stay. By then the Oilers would know if they had gotten a couple of pieces they wanted or not.

Honestly, nobody should be disappointed that Jones is returning. He was never a problem in our bottom 6. In fact he was one of the few shining pieces in a pile of rubbish who simply had an off year in a shortened season and an injury to work around. He's back for only one year and at a price that won't break the bank. Seriously, I'd rather have Jones back with how great he is in the room and his work ethic than some random plug from another team that might not be as thrilled to play here if acquired by a trade or because we offered the most money.

Nice of you to defend Jones for coming back when he never left . The other pile of rubbish you refer to however is still in our personnel and only Hartekainen left on his own accord . Will you also be defending the others as well like Smyth par example and Paajarvi ?

I won't defend Smyth, no. I love him, I love what he's done for the team when he was with us for the first time but he's lost so much of his step. He can nearly never keep up with the play and contributes nearly nothing offensively any more. MacT wants bold? I want MacT to be bold enough to show Smyth the door.

Paajarvi's fine and floats around in the lineup. Hartikainen has lots of potential, but yes, he's rubbish when he plays up here. There's a reason why he couldn't stay in the line up and why he left to develop his game a bit more elsewhere.